Things You Must Know Before Joining an MBA Course

MBA is a craze these days. Many youngsters plan to do MBA after their graduation. However not many of them really know what it exactly is and what they should really do to make most out of their investment. Most of these ignorant fellows end up in wasting huge money on an inferior institution that takes them nowhere in fact. Here are some things which you must know before opting for an MBA.
1. Nomenclature: MBA, abbreviated from Master in Business Administration is an internationally recognized PG course covering various business -oriented subjects, such as Marketing, Finance, Human Resources
2. Origin: Originated from the United States in the late nineteenth century, started in India in 1961 with IIMS that were not authorized to offer MBA degrees and were issuing PGDM (Post Graduate Diploma in Management).
3. First b-schools of India: IIM Calcutta was the first to be established with the collaboration of MIT Sloan School of Management. Next to follow was IIM Ahmadabad, in initial collaboration with Harvard Business School. In 1955, the University of Delhi initiated the Faculty Management Studies (FMS) and during 1968, first launched the MBA program for graduates.
4. Course to be selected from i) Full time and Industry Accepted ii) Regular 2 years iii) One Year Part time for executives iv) Distance Learning online by weekends v) Open University vi) Finishing School Concepts.
5. Specialization Subjects: General MBA provides options for Marketing, HR and Finance. IIMs and other top b-schools offer a number of electives that don't attract student. Job prospects marketing 70% finance & HR 10% and balance 10% covers all specialization. Don't get lured by low budget programs offering new specialization.
6. Special Courses: Select institutes marked 'specialized' for specialized courses. Choose to join IIFT for Foreign Trade or IRMA for Rural Management. Other specialized courses are International Business, Entrepreneurship, Media Management, Healthcare, NGO & Rural Development, Tourism and Travels etc. Private institutes charging fees less than Rs 6-7 lakhs can't provide good quality specialized courses.
7. Self-Interrogation: Sort out the pros and cons with regard to the course and institute you are going to select. What are your motivations such as prospective job openings or establishing your own business? Thinking of in-country education or abroad? Low budget course or high profile institutes? Financial resources available or intending to avail study loan. Which course with what investment gives you the optimum Return on Investment?
8. Selection procedure of foreign b-schools: The base is GMAT or Graduate Management Admission Test, TOEFL or Test of English as a foreign language and IELTS or International English Language Testing System. Letters of Recommendation and personal interviews are other means of selection. Join only the high-ranking ones.
9. Ranking of b-School is done by Bloomberg Business week, US news & World Report, Eduniversal, the Economist and FT.com. D& B gives list of all b-schools in India and interviews associated (dnb.co.in/indias) Leading Business Schools. Ranking up to top ten may be authentic while the rest may be manipulative, favoring particular institute.
10. Qualifying Ability: You are to score the minimum cut-off marks in Common Admission Test or CAT. Check your own past academic performance at matriculation or +2 levels. Your earlier good performance in mathematics and basic knowledge of Economics, and Quantitative Techniques, good communication skills in English, both written and spoken, involvement in extracurricular activities and perseverance will help you better after you join any b-school of your choice.

Type 2 Diabetes

Being overweight or obese are often problems for most people who are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. These diabetics are usually told weight loss intervention can help to control the disease as well as prevent damage to their heart and blood vessel disease.
Unfortunately, heart attacks are a prime cause of death in middle-aged people with Type 2 diabetes. Fatality rates are two to four times higher than those of middle-aged people without diabetes. Recent studies reveal between 35 and 50 percent of heart attack victims had abnormal blood sugar at the time of the attack. People with high blood pressure are also at a higher risk.
Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco, United States, however, who are concerned weight loss programs could have complications, undertook a study to ascertain what effects, if any, weight loss interventions could have on the bones of people with Type 2 diabetes.
Their study, published in the Journal of Bone Mineral Research in December 2011, included 1274 obese or overweight people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
One group was given:

• an intensive lifestyle weight loss intervention, while
• the other group was given basic diabetes support and education over a period of one year.

At the end of the study weight loss, basic fitness, and blood sugar levels showed improvement in the weight loss intervention group. The bad news is the weight loss intervention group also demonstrated loss of bone mineral density in their hip and thigh bones.
People with diabetes can be susceptible to falls due to diabetic neuropathy and poor vision. Hip fractures can have serious consequences, sometimes requiring surgery, frequently limiting mobility, and sometimes even leading to death.
Fortunately, there are ways of fighting the loss of bone density. Bones need calcium, so getting enough calcium is one way of keeping your bones healthy.

• a cup of unfortified oatmeal has 4 percent of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of calcium for an adult, and a cup of fortified oatmeal has 10 per cent.
• broccoli, spinach, kale, and turnip greens are good sources of calcium. One cup of spinach contains 20 per cent of the RDA of calcium for an adult. A cup of broccoli has 4 per cent and a cup of turnip greens provides 10 per cent. A cup of kale has 9 per cent, so have a big green salad for lunch.
• calcium supplements are also available.

It's not enough though to just take calcium supplements or eat high-calcium foods; you need to cut down on foods that are diuretics: caffeine and alcohol.
To be used for bone growth and repair, calcium needs some help from vitamin D, which is often lacking in people with Type 2 diabetes:

• getting a few minutes of sunlight every day without a sunscreen is helpful for making vitamin D,
• foods such as soy milk can be fortified with vitamin D.
• supplements of vitamin D are recommended for those who live in latitudes with little sunlight or cold climates or those who are unable to have much sun exposure due to lifestyle or dress.

Weight-bearing exercises are also important for growth and repair of bones, so take a walk every day in addition to taking in calcium and vitamin D.
If your bone density is lowered to the point of being dangerous, it is termed osteoporosis, and medications are available to treat it. Your bone mineral density can be measured and your doctor can prescribe much needed drugs if necessary.

What Is Facebook?

Electronic media trends are changing rapidly. A social networking website is an online platform where users can create a profile and share their thoughts that connects to other users. These social networking websites contain lots of features, providing avenues for both content evaluation and creation. Users share thoughts, photos, opinions and news. Traditionally, these websites allowed people to stay connected with family and friends, and individuals with similar interest to share. The top four social media networks worldwide are Facebook, Linked-In, MySpace or Twitter.
What is Facebook? Facebook is really a best platform. It's turning into an extremely significant platform for online communicating. It's speedily, turning into another type of marketing and interaction and advertising for a lot of businesses over the world. It's a continually expanding, online communicating and interaction source. Facebook is definitely a WWW is a social network website that allows people to share communications.

This platform is used by billions of people over the world, but only a few people know how to properly use this website. Facebook is often a widely used online networking program that allows peoples to share information with other people. It's an effective advertising and marketing resource that allows brands and services to get in touch and promote them. It's a wonderful website and advertising strategy to complement your online marketing technique. It's totally free of charge strategy, suitable as an online resource to offer your services and products. Facebook has consequently turned into an advertising and marketing strategy to attain a particular target customers quickly. It's now a popular focus on for social online marketing. It's an excellent learning platform for educators.

Facebook enables peoples to place their thoughts freely. It's much better for organizations and it allows you to gain knowledge from peoples you wouldn't ordinarily have contiguous exposure to, otherwise. It's used by all, not only the Athletic Individuals, Writers, celebrities, and Organization members. It's the open social networking platform; here peoples can compliment you honestly regarding your products and services. It's an uninterrupted pulse item that means it may really run your attention span. It's best for making a buzz about a cool service kick off or advertising and marketing of an active product or service. It's perfect for offering your services or products. It's the perfect location to market your services or products or site at this time as it's very hot.

Facebook is social media site that actually works similar to MySpace or Twitter. It's closer to blogs while MySpace or Facebook fits in the whole online community group. Facebook is really a social media site for keeping hooked up with family members, friends, organizations, co-workers, or communities with the same interests and hobbies. It has been a big part of my connectedness, my client base, with my past associates. It has been very accessible and I have had no issues with the services that Facebook provides.

Positive Benefits of Video Games

We all have read news reports about the negative influences of video games. It is true that these games can have some bad consequences on the child's behavior but there are also a lot of positive benefits. Video games engage children in many learning activities which help children learn certain skills. Computers are an important social tool in today's modern world and children should be given enough opportunities to play with them. Some studies have also shown that video games can teach children with attention deficit disorders to modulate their brain waves associated with focusing. With proper training these children have shown to improve their social and organizational skills.

Positive Benefits for Children

• As Educational Tool-These games are fun and exciting for children so they stimulate learning.
• Spatial skills-Spatial skills abilities help children visualize objects in two and three dimensions.
• Goal Setting-Goals are set in every game and they need to rehearse these goals.
• Maths skills-They see their scores while playing and hence learn some basic maths skills.
• Language skills-They learn how to follow directions and read certain words like 'Go','Stop','Start'.
• Social Skills-Children can talk about their passion with their friends in school and can make new friends who share a common interest.
• Decision-making skills
• It teaches Strategy
• Teaches children Computer Skills
• It teaches Memory and Mapping
• Multitasking
• Quick Reasoning and Critical thinking

Caution for Parents

• Always remember that your supervision is a must if your child is very young.
• Children must not be allowed to play these games for a long time as it can interfere with their home-work and other daily responsibilities.
• You must monitor the effects of these games on your child's behavior. If you don't want him to play violent games then it's okay to be a little strict.
• Engage your child in other activities by interacting with him, reading books,sports and even watching television. This will not make him addicted to these games.

Tips for Choosing Video Games

• Check the ratings of the game and pick the ones that is acceptable to your family.
• Look for games that involve strategy making and activities that stimulate your child's brain.
• Choose a game that is appropriate for your child's age.
• Encourage group play by picking games which involve multiple players.

Active Retirees Speak, Sell Books, Reports On Retirement Made Easy

Are you a retiree who is looking for something intriguing and fun to do, while making extra money? If your answer is yes, you are not alone. In fact, most older employees (65 percent) told researchers they would like to have some form of work in their retirement, according to a 2011 Harris Interactive survey of 1,001 people age 55 and older commissioned by Sun America.
Interestingly, of those surveyed few said they want full time work; only 4 percent told Harris researchers they want to work full time in retirement. Some 25 percent said they want to work part time in retirement, and 36 percent would rather to go back and forth between work and leisure, reports Dave Bernard for U.S. News.
If you find yourself looking for either full or part time activity to keep your brain active, while making some extra money, consider speaking before groups of pre and post-retirees about successful retirement ideas. A popular way to get started is speaking before a local organization or club, with a well researched book or report to sell at the back of the room.
With retirement a good topic to address (it should be, since baby boomers are starting to retire in large numbers), here are three important retirement questions that you could write a speech around:
-- Why are some people more ready for retirement than others?
-- Are there any specific issues that most people overlook when considering retirement?
-- Why is the idea of retirement difficult for some, and easy for others?
Any speakers who are fast on their feet with answers to questions like these should impress their audience. To prepare to speak before a group, here is some quick help in preparing your cheat sheet (or talking points) for your speech on making retirement easy, focusing on several or all of these questions.
Who really IS ready for retirement?
People who help or coach others to prepare for retirement often introduce some of the following issues to see if the people they are working with are retirement-ready:
--Do you believe your financial support plan covers you appropriately for the years ahead?
--Do you have other plans for your retirement (how you will spend your time)?
--Do you exercise for 20 minutes without a break at least three times a week?
All are appropriate questions, and even more like them come from The Retirement Readiness Assessment sponsored by My Next Phase. I took the online quiz and actually learned a few things about retirement readiness, so I challenge you to take it, too.
So, what appears to be some over-looked retirement issues?
While people who are retiring are typically advised to take stock of their financial resources, they don't always consider their psychological resources, says Nancy Schlossberg, Professor Emerita of Education at the University of Maryland.
Dr. Schlossberg has written extensively about retirement planning, noting that many baby boomers "didn't realize what was at stake when they left their jobs. They didn't think about things like how to structure their lives, their time, and how they might matter to others."
This researcher tells About Senior Living editor Shannon O'Brien that identity is key. "...when someone can say, for example, "I'm a professor," that's one thing, but when that identity is no longer there, it can be quite upsetting. It can take time to figure out a new identity."
Now, moving on to...
Why is retirement hard for some, and easier for others?
As a retirement blogger and author, I do not see this question asked often enough, and it is a good one. "Jacob" who blogs for Early Retirement Extremes, notes that how people approach personal finance makes a true difference, distinguishing why some people retire easier than others.
According to this "extreme" blogger: "To get ahead, you must either press the accelerator harder or ease on the brake. Apparently lots of people are not fully aware of just how hard they're flooring the brake. Therefore try this exercise. Every time you touch something [that you are considering for purchase], ask yourself whether this item has accelerated your income or whether it has decreased your savings."
Any other important, last-minute tips?
A wealth of retirement information is found online just by searching with the major browsers. I suggest taking a look at Investopedia, a particularly helpful site filled with many sophisticated ideas for soon-to-be retirees. Here is one of its many last-minute retirement tips:
Establish a Cash Emergency Fund to get you through the hard times. "It acts as a safety net in case something expensive or unplanned happens, such as medical expenses, market downturns or expensive home maintenance issues, just to name a few."
In fact, retirees are often advised to have three to six months of emergency cash reserves available separate from their investment portfolio. In normal economic times, this may be okay, but if the economic downturns, and the retiree is living off savings then it would help to add 12 to 18 months of cash to the investment portfolio to allow bonds and stocks to recover during bad times, according to Investopedia.
Are you ready for your retirement speech? With this information in hand, and your additional research, you should keep the attention of your audience. (Be sure to have your well-researched book or report ready to sell, and business cards to hand out.)

Susan Klopfer, author and speaker, writes on civil rights and diversity. Her newest books, Who Killed Emmett Till?" "Where Rebels Roost: Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited" and "The Emmett Till Book" are now in print and are carried in most online bookstores including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and in eBook versions on iBooks and Smashwords. "Where Rebels Roost" focuses on the Mississippi Delta, with stories about Emmett Till, Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry, Amzie Moore and many other civil rights foot soldiers. These books emphasize unsolved murders of Delta blacks from mid 1950s on. She is also the author of eBook, Cash In On Diversity. Klopfer is an award-winning journalist and former acquisitions and development editor for Prentice-Hall. Her computer book, "Abort, Retry, Fail!" was an alternate selection by the Book of-the-Month Club.

Self Mastery Can Improve Your Life

In the words of Leonard da Vinci "One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself".
Self mastery is the ability to recognize, understand and manage the different aspects of your personality, and in so doing, to create a higher quality of life experience. It is the ability to make the most out of your physical, mental and spiritual health and below are some areas of your life which will help you on your path towards developing effective self-mastery.
Vision: All self-mastery starts with you: the roadmap that you will create to take you to where you want to be. You need to be self-disciplined and committed to your vision and to always keep it in the forefront of your mind. Write your aims down, and share them with others, so that you will be accountable to yourself.
Accept people: Once you accept people for who and what they are, you won't waste time and energy being frustrated in trying to change them. Everyone is different and that means that we have to learn the life skill of people management. Not everyone thinks and acts as we would like.
Don't wait for perfection: Appreciate who you are, what you are, and what you have so far accomplished. You may not achieve the same results as your idealised role model but the important factor is to work your way towards getting there whilst not expecting it to happen overnight.
Look after your body: Your body is an incredibly complex machine that needs daily maintenance, so make sure you give it the nutrients and exercise it needs for optimum performance. If it becomes damaged in part, it has the ability to self-heal, provided you recognise the fact that you, yourself, need to help the process.
Self Discipline: People who demonstrate strong self-mastery are not controlled by their emotions. They learn to control their fears, their likes and dislikes, in order to move forward unencumbered by inner doubts but reinforced by facts and the unemotional assessment of risk, gain or loss.
Appreciation: Always be aware of the gift of health, the natural world, your family, your children, your education, your place in the community and in society, and the peace that spirituality can give to you in times of hardship or stress.
Communicate: You have the power to make someone smile just by openly smiling yourself and by making time to talk to others in a way that could make all the difference to their day.
Cognitive Restructuring: This technique involves modifying the automatic negative thoughts that occur in an anxiety-provoking situation, to a positive mindset that enables you to manage the challenge instead of mismanaging it. You need to always remind yourself of your natural talents and experience. If you convince yourself that you can win, then you may well do so. Unfortunately, however, the opposite holds just as true!
Concentrate: Try not to have a 'butterfly mind' that flits from one topic to another. Focus your mind on one thing at a time and gain the fulfillment of achieving a goal and then feeling that sense of satisfaction before moving onto something else.
Emotional Intelligence: Those that have gained self-mastery are usually well aware of other people's needs and emotions and take them into consideration when communicating. Of course, in a negotiating context, that can be the winning factor.
Let go: We are all reluctant to let go of the past and focus on the future. This is often because the past is more comfortable to deal with, as it holds no secrets, whereas the future is bound to hold many unknown challenges. However, letting-go is essential in order to move forward unencumbered with the 'baggage' of previous relationships.
Self-mastery is a life skill that takes times and effort. It's a continuous process that should be integral to one's daily life script for everyday living. Once you have mastered it, you will also be able to help others to achieve the same skill. And that in itself, can be one of the most satisfying and humbling experience of our own lives.
Written by Carole Spiers and reprinted with the kind permission of Gulf News.

Carole Spiers is a world authority on work stress, a BBC Guest-Broadcaster and author of a new book 'Show Stress Who's Boss!'

The Power of 10

I recently tried launching a product and like many entrepreneurs, money is tight and there is no room for any losses or miscalculations. I thought, wrecked my brain, and went through everything that I had learned in school reviewing my textbooks to see what types of marketing mix I could come up with to get this $19.95 product in the field to solve a problem of many highway motorist. The result of my research brought me back to my original issue, not enough capital to fund the launch.

My Story

April 2, 2012, my entire life changed forever and I mean forever. At the age of 56 while at work I had an acute asthma attack. You're probably saying what does this have to do with launching and marketing a product? We'll get to that. A few weeks earlier I visited my family doctor due to breathing problems. The pollen here in Charlotte, NC was seriously bad and the pollen conditions were being reported on the news as much as three and four times daily. My doctor treated me with a breathing treatment, some antibiotics, a portable breathing machine, and released me. The following week I was unable to get out of bed to even walk to the bathroom without seriously being out of breath. I was disciplined at work for calling out. A top performer, written up for the first time in my 47 years of working. That caused stress in my life and I went into work Sunday and Monday the 1st and 2nd of April 2012.

The morning of April 2, 2012 at 12:30 a supervisor passed by and asked if I was wheezing and my reply was "if you can hear me I guess I am" so I got up and took a breathing treatment and came back to my desk(1:00pm) immediately emailing my wife to come pick me up early from work because I thought I might have some difficulties later on; she was out at lunch and never got my message. At 2:30 I was unable to stand, talk, or breathe. I threw a pen across the room to get someones attention and they immediately called my wife and dialed 911. The next 1 hour was the longest hour in my life not being exhale, listening to the radio traffic when I hear my wife has arrived at the gate of my job in front of the ambulance and they veer off and go to the wrong building.

Finally, the emergency team arrives and immediately try to force air in my face and fight begins. Try pushing a needed product in the face of it's intended user. Regardless of the need there is still opposition to the delivery. I was told the EMT worked on me for about 15 minutes in the parking lot prior to the trip to the hospital. The critical part of this journey had just begun; I was resuscitated twice during the night; gone, dead. Hearing the many stories about this incredible battle with life, the miracle, along with a spiritual experience in the brightest light that I've ever seen along with a moving conversation that turned my entire life around which brings me to where we are now..The Power of 10.

The Service Industry and for as much any business can very well be a ministry if you are truly in the business to serve and help people. Notice I didn't say in the business for profit. Profits will come if you flow with your heart; your passion. How do you flow with your passion? Make sure you are doing something that you really are good at and you enjoy. Really simple. Why would you do something because there is " a lot of money in it" and you're stressed out daily because you are spending more time trying to get the education about the business while you are trying to make a profit? You are wasting time on something that doesn't express your heart, your passion.

I'm not trying to convert or sway you spiritually or cause conflict between you and your religious beliefs, but we are all created with one thing that makes us unique, DNA. This means that you have something that is especially made for you and only you can produce it. So going after a business because there is a lot of money to be made may not be for you if there is no heart or passion and is out of your character.

Try this, ask your friends, family members, and co-workers for their candid opinion. Let them know that you want to know the truth and you are not looking for compliments. You are searching for your natural and spiritual gifts and abilities. Yes this may mean that you have to step back and punt again, but I think you would feel a lot better doing something that you are passionate about.

Power of 10

The parable of the ten minas teaches that we are expected to use the gifts we've received from God to do good. We're to "invest" them so that they'll earn a return even greater than the original gift. This brings me to heart, service, and going back to basic teaching of giving. I was in Virginia Beach, Va for a family emergency sitting on my parents front porch when the words "Give it away" just exploded in my head. Who am I to argue with the Voice?

Here I was sitting on my parent's front porch in Virginia Beach, Va looking at my targeted market drive by one car after another. I introduced myself to a young man driving an older Nissan SUV that had been given to him with over 200,000 miles on it. I began talking to him about his vehicle and a product that I was going to give to him because I wanted to help him with the maintenance of his vehicle. What had I just done? I just established a relationship and a new friend.

My wife arrived about five hours later from Charlotte, NC and I immediately went over to my trunk, had him start his engine to let it warm up, and I applied the product to his engine and told him to just drive and tell me about it. When he came back after being gone for a few hours, he had cleaned the vehicle inside and out and began telling me how well the vehicle was running compared to several hours ago. He went to his pastor to tell about this man who had given him a gift that would allow him to keep his vehicle a little while longer while he was getting on his feet. He brought back his pastor and nine other men who needed the product for their older model, high mileage vehicles. A seed had been sown and my return was ten new clients. I did this again to another gentleman who was driving a Chevy Conversion Van, yes there are still some on the road, and the return was again ten plus some of his lodge members indicated they were purchasing also from the site.